Series at a Glance

Los Angeles (65-66) capped four straight losses at Philadelphia with a 5-0
defeat on Monday. It was the sixth loss in seven games for the Dodgers, who were
tied with Arizona atop the NL West on Aug. 17, but are now three games behind
the first-place Diamondbacks.

The Dodgers, though, are in position to avoid matching their season high
losing streak by facing Washington (46-85), which has lost two in a row and 14
of its last 16. Los Angeles has won six in a row over the Nationals and 11 of
the last 12 meetings, including a three-game sweep at Dodger Stadium from July
25-27.

Lowe (10-10, 3.89 ERA) looks for his third consecutive victory overall while
trying to remain perfect versus the Nationals franchise. For the second straight
contest he allowed one run, this time with four hits in 6 1-3 innings of a 3-1
victory over Colorado on Thursday.

“When he’s hitting his spots like that, he’s tough,” Colorado’s Ian Stewart
said of Lowe, who is 2-0 with a 2.29 ERA over his last three starts.

The right-hander has won all five starts with a 2.45 ERA against Washington
and allowed one hit in eight innings of a 6-0 victory over the Nationals on July
26.

Despite their dominance of Washington, the Dodgers need to improve
offensively in order to continue their success against the Nationals.

On Monday, Russell Martin and Matt Kemp each had three of the 13 hits for
Los Angeles, which was outscored 27-5 by the Phillies and has totaled 14 runs
over its last seven contests. Only the 1913 New York Giants and the 1928
Cleveland Indians have had more hits (14 each) without scoring a run in a
nine-inning game.

“You draw it up and the law of averages says you’re going to score some
runs, but you can’t depend on that,” Los Angeles manager Joe Torre said.

Manny Ramirez is hitting .361 with six homers and 21 RBIs in 23 games since
being traded from Boston to Los Angeles, but has gone seven straight contests
without an RBI.

Washington rookie Collin Balester (2-6 4.99) hopes to avoid a fourth
consecutive loss when he faces the Dodgers for the first time. He allowed three
earned runs and seven hits in six innings of a 4-0 loss at Philadelphia on
Wednesday.

“The toughest thing for me is to keep the ball down more consistently,”
said Balester, who has yielded eight homers in nine starts. “It’s not a maybe
thing. You’ve got to do it. I’ve got to work on that because it’s killing me.”

Washington fell 6-1 at Chicago on Sunday and scored three runs in losing the
final two games of the set after winning the opener 13-5.

Ronnie Belliard has been swinging a very hot bat for the Nationals, hitting
.513 (20-for-39) with a homer and seven RBIs over his last 10 games.